Dusk
by oleander1
Summary: Rather than being helpless and boring Bella's strong, independent and doesn't take s*** from any one. not really a feminist kinda deal but more like how any one not completely blinded by the attentions of a "dangerous" guy would have handled it.
1. Chapter 1

5235af1f83

3 am is an unholy hour to be awake. I'm not exactly sure if it's really early or really late, I guess that depends on your circumstances. Considering I've been conscious for…going on 30 hours now, according to my sleep deprived brain, it was really friggin late. I was still driving I had about two hours to go before I would get to my fathers house. Not that I had been driving for 30 hours straight it's not that long of a drive (thank God), I'm just not too good at sleeping when I'm anxious.

Truth was I was bored out of my wits; no one to talk to and I had gone through all of my cd's to which I had sung loudly and off key to. I decided I needed a coffee and pee break. Not exactly in that order.

I took the next exit and immediately found a quaint looking diner that was actually open, any place that is open at 3 am and still in business probably has decent coffee. Before I sat down I went to the ladies room to freshen up, I peed, splashed some water on my face and threw my hair into a ponytail. I decided I looked presentable as any could at this hour.

I slid into a booth that faced the rest of the restaurant and was backed by a wall; I liked having my back to the wall, meant no one could sneak up on me. I'm paranoid like that, so what?

An old-ish lady as round and just as sweet looking as an over ripe peach bustled over to my table.

"What can I get ya hon?" she said pen poised over her note pad.

"Coffee and …." What sounds good? "Bacon please."

She nodded and went to put in my order.

I leaned back against the seat enough to crack my back then stretched my arms out and laid them against the back of the seat. If I was a guy and I was sitting like this I'd say I looked like a creeper, but when you're a hundred and twenty five pound 18 year old girl its hard to look threatening. Which at times can be used to one's advantage.

The waitress came with my coffee and I shivered and sighed in contentment when I had my first sip. Happiness in a cup…

I ate my bacon and sipped the rest of my coffee in peace. Feeling re-energized I hopped into my newly refurbished 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle. It was my baby and I had been working on it ever since I bought the rusty shell of a once beautiful machine off my best friends older brother for 300 dollars when I was 13. Mom hadn't freaked out she just rolled her eyes when they towed it over to the house and put it in the extra carport. I got it finished last year, its matte black and waxed to a fine sheen.

I rolled the windows down and let the wind whip my hair back as I sped down the highway. The air smelled fresh, like there was a storm coming just over the horizon, that was probably the case, from what I've seen so far it's almost always raining here.

About 30 minutes into the last leg of my journey I zoned out a little bit, thinking about the fateful turn of event that led my mom to insist on me moving away to go live with my father.

I stabbed someone. It was purely self-defense. I was walking to my car after my shift at Hank's Place, bar and grill, (I was hostess) when a mountain of a man with buzzed non-descript brown hair grabbed me around the waist covered my mouth with one of his greasy mitts and carried me off to the small alley-way that's in between Hank's and the florist next door.

He had me shoved up against the cold brick wall while he was fumbling with something. Something that I didn't want anything to do with. I panicked for a split second terror and dread clouding my mind. I finally got my mind on track with great effort. I didn't even think to use my unique ability, not that I could have my mouth and most of my face were being crushed under his sinewy forearm. He smelled of sweat and cigarette smoke. I took in my surroundings nothing around that could help me, no empty bear bottles or anything else that could be used to bludgeon one's attacker. Then I felt it, digging into my stomach was the butt of what I assumed to be a large knife. I flicked the snap open. He didn't notice. I eased it out of the sheath. Still nothing. In one fluid motion so fast that it surprised even me I sank that five-inch long blade into the side of his neck with a slight twist of my wrist, just to do that much more damage.

He looked into my eyes in disbelief as I watched his hand tremble while he tried in vain to reach up and remove the knife. Blood dripped from the end of the handle and landed on my white button down dress shirt, it looked black in the near darkness. I watched the light leave his eyes and go flat and felt nothing but a surge of relief.

The whole thing was really a pain in the ass, all I wanted to do was forget about it and go on living the life that I had fought for. No such luck. I must've repeated that story a dozen times to seven different kinds of law enforcement personnel, first the regular county sheriff then plain-clothes detectives, then a ton of feds.

My attacker was identified as Gunter Smith. He had a warrant out for his arrest for things ranging from aggravated assault to suspected murder. Also a known gang member, when they told me that I remembered seeing the double lightning bolts on tattooed to the side of his neck where I had stabbed him. Jeez every time I think things like "stabbed a giant gang member" I feel like a crazy person but I also feel like a bad ass. Yup, that's me putting down bad guys in the dead of night making the world a safer place.

They said that I should get some kind of therapy to deal with the trauma, but I didn't want to get shrunken by some dude and bring up the incident again. I was just fine with suppressing the hell out of it. The side effect of that repression was that it left me drained emotionally. Mom thought that I needed a change of scenery and as she put it "What trouble could I [you] possibly get into while living with my [your] cop dad in a small town like Forks?"

I pulled into the tight two-car driveway in front of my childhood home. The sun was just starting to rise illuminating the modest yellow two-story house in watery light. I heaved a sigh, well here I am, no turning back now I was committed to making a new life here. Also I was far too tired to even consider driving somewhere else.

I walked into the kitchen where I heard movement. There was Charlie in his fishing garb turned towards the pantry finishing up packing his snack into a paper bag.

"Hi, Cha-…Dad." He doesn't like the first name thing.

He jumped slightly then whirled, giant smile in place. "Bells!" he took two long strides and hugged me.

"I've missed you! How was your drive? Where are all of your bags?" he was asking way too many questions, that is if two can ever really be considered too many of anything. Maybe like hungry tigers in a room with you or something, but then one are too many of those. I realized that I had taken way too long to answer…damn I'm sleepy.

"My drive was fine I was a little worried to take the Chevelle on such a long trip but she did fine. And the rest of my bags are in the backseat, I'll get them later." I leaned against the kitchen table for support I was beginning to sway a little.

"Well you look exhausted kiddo, I'm gonna go fishing, why don't you get some sleep?" he said gathering up all his tackle. He couldn't have said anything better than that.

"Yeah I haven't really been sleeping." I said.

He nodded, hugged me and kissed my forehead. "Bye hon, get some rest."

Will do…

I dragged my tired butt up the stairs and to my small bathroom. I washed my face and got a new toothbrush from under the sink to brush my teeth. I climbed into bead and I swear I was passed out before my head hit the pillow.

When I woke up it was dark and I didn't know where I was right away. My brain caught up and the last few days came back to me in a rush. I sighed and realized that I hadn't quite accepted my new lot in life yet. It would come, sooner or later.

I looked over to my alarm clock. 6:22 pm. Damn I slept the whole day.

I followed the smell of fish fry that wafted up the stairs from the back porch, my stomach groaned loudly like it had smelled the greasy goodness. The only thing that Charlie cooked, well at least, was bear battered fish.

We sat down to a somewhat awkward silence. "So, excited for your first day of school?" Charlie though successful in getting the conversational ball rolling got it rolling in the wrong direction. I wanted to put off thinking about the 'first day' thing for as long as possible, even if that meant avoiding it until I pulled into the schools parking lot tomorrow morning.

I put a fork full of fish in my mouth and decided that not all was bad in the world. If there wasn't anything too great left at least there was fried food.

"Oh, yeah it should be fun," No it wont. I plastered a smile on my face in the hopes that he would drop the subject.

"That's the spirit, I'm glad your adjusting so well" He bought the act, _sweet_.

"How was your fishing trip?" that was one thing Charlie could talk about for a while. Hopefully till dinner was over. I felt like bitch, trying to get him to talk about something harmless because I knew he wouldn't just let there be silence, he would feel obligated to ask me how I was dealing with the move.

I was finished with my food when Charlie's fork scraped his plate; he looked down at his plate with a mildly shocked expression. He had talked almost non-stop about the trip he had taken with Billy Clearwater, and how he had packed the freezer out back waist deep with fish. I bustled around the kitchen cleaning everything up but I could almost hear the cogs turning in Charlie's head while he worked up to whatever he wanted to say.

I turned around from the sink with my hands on my hips; dishtowel slung over my shoulder and gave him a pointed look that said, "C'mon out with it."

He took a breath to speak, paused shook his head and let it out slowly. He nodded to himself and without any more prep said "Bell, no matter what the circumstances are for you coming here, well… I'm really glad you are." I'm a horrible person. All this time he was working up to saying something sweet, welcoming me in the nicest way possible and here I was avoiding talking to him the way a dog avoids spicy food.

"Oh, dad I'm glad I'm here too." I went over to hug him. We had a nice father daughter moment worthy of an award, if they gave that sort of thing out.

A/N so? It'll get more action-y in the next one for sure.


	2. First Day

_Oh yeah I forgot to put this on the other one, I don't own this, Meyers does._

I was sitting in the school parking lot, debating whether or not I could get away with skipping today, put off school for at least another 24 hours. Probably not, this is a small ass town, where would I go that Charlie wasn't sure to see me while he was patrolling? Plus the sooner I got the whole 'first day' nonsense out of the way, the better. On the plus side though, I noticed that my car happened to be the nicest in the whole lot. If not the shiniest. I was feeling pretty spiffy till I saw a brand spankin' new Volvo drive into the lot in my rear view mirror. It was silver which is hard to compete with in the shiny department. I had no problem with the Swedish made cars, they were nice, but I couldn't help but feel a little peeved at it for ruining my sense of superiority. Whatever, mine was classic muscle.

I reclined my seat back and took a deep breath, held it, and let it out in a whoosh. It cleared my mind and let the sensual rhythm of the 'Incubus' song I was listening to fill my head. I was relaxed into an almost boneless state when I heard the first bell ring. I groaned, well here goes nothing.

I needed to go to the front office to pick up my schedule before I could do anything. I got out of the car and shut the creaky door. I don't know if it was the loud creak or some type of strange 'new girl' radar but every male head on campus simultaneously turned my way, it was sort of impressive but mostly unsettling. I kept my head down and booked it to the administration building.

The small office was oppressively warm and smelled like old carpet and loneliness. I looked down and found the reason behind one of the musty smells, pea green carpet that I imagine used to be a somewhat regular color a century and a half ago, covered the floor, I shuttered and looked towards the receptionist and found the source of the rank loneliness on the air. The secretary had dull bottle red hair and iridescent blue eye shadow, she was in her late fifties or perhaps younger but the sour expression on her face aged her. I leaned against the pealing Formica counter top and had to resist the destructive urge to help it along by picking at it.

Ms. Cope as the name plate declared is typing away and acknowledges my presence by holding up her pointer finger in a 'one minute gesture'. What the hell? She didn't even look up or say anything. She keeps on typing up whatever all-important document for at least another three minutes while I'm silently seething. I hate people like this, the kind that get a sense of power from making you wait unnecessarily. I started tapping my fingers to the beat of my heart, nothing, I leaned into the counter invading the hell out of her personal space, not even a look, I hummed a tune out of key and much louder than humming etiquette dictates and finally she looked up. I smiled, not because I was particularly thrilled to talk to her but I was glad to see that my tactics had finally paid off. What can I say? I got a sense of power from it.

"Can I help you?" Her voice was as bad as her appearance.

"If it's not too much trouble." I mentally pumped my fist in the air for keeping a straight face. "I'd like to get my schedule, it's my first day." I smiled, not that I really needed to win her favor, I could probably make her do whatever I wanted but if I didn't absolutely need to I didn't like influencing people in the special way I had.

"Oh, Isabella Swan right?" She started going through some file folders on the desk.

"Yep, that would be me." I said.

She was holding a piece of paper in her hands that I could clearly tell was my schedule but she didn't hand it over.

"Can I see some ID?" So that was how it was going to be? I knew for a fact that she was in no way concerned for the school's security, plus what could she think someone who looks like me possibly do? She was just giving me a hard time. Well, if she was going to play dirty then I would feel no guilt whatsoever in stooping to her level.

"Of course." I said digging through my bag to get my license.

"Here you are." As I handed her the ID I made sure to touch her hand. She probably thought I was strange or flirting with her. I shivered at the thought. Yucky. Whatever she thought though didn't matter, I had a handle on her brain now that I had made contact. It was particularly easy, with some people it takes a little more because they are strong willed, not this lady, her mind was my very own playground.

I looked at my schedule, it all seemed to be in order except that I had gym. I took that class my freshman year to get it out of the way, I was not about to be thrown into that mess again. I looked up at Ms. Cope to see that she had a distant look on her face, geez this would be like taking candy from a sick baby.

"Um, Ms. Cope it seems that I am scheduled to take gym sixth period, I already took the required PE class when I lived in Arizona. It wouldn't be any trouble for you to change it, right?" I forced the thought to take shape in her head only stopping when I felt it being absorbed so to speak. Saying it out loud was necessary, they have to have the idea all on their own.

"Well, sure I guess not." I felt like laughing like a mad scientist.

"Instead I'd like to take AP Psychology." My tone was firm, the kind that you take with a dog or child that's misbehaving.

She looked at me, entranced and started typing and clicking on her computer. "Yes, there is sixth period AP Psych class that I can switch you into." She looked to me hopefully.

"Yes, that would be great." I said. She beamed at me typed and clicked some more and then the printer whirred to life and spit out my new schedule. I checked it over. Yup, that would do it.

"Thanks so much." I said. I could feel my control of her slipping; I would need to get out of there before she realized she did something completely out of character. I can only hold a person's mind so long with limited physical contact, I suppose if I was holding someone's hand I could keep it up indefinitely but I had never attempted that. As unlikely it sounds sometimes I seriously creep myself out when I'm coercing someone, I feel a different part of myself coming out of some dark spot in my mind into the light and stretching like some big cat getting ready to go on the hunt. It was way too early to be thinking such heavy thoughts

I walked into my first period class three minutes late I might add due in part to Ms. Cope's shenanigans. The English teacher whose name I forgot almost as soon as I was told introduced me I told the class I was from Arizona, one of the guys commented on what a difference there was in climate. _Wow_ I thought aren't you extremely good at pointing out the obvious. Then I felt bad for even thinking that, he was probably just trying to be nice. Since it was English and the teacher was okay as far as I was concerned -although a little boring but all that meant was that I could zone out, which I quickly did after he gave me all of the papers that I would need for this quarter.

The bell rang and I got up with everyone else and filed out into the hallway. Now to find my AP Bio class room number-

My train of thought as well as my path was cut off by the guy in front of me who I remembered as being the one in English that commented on the weather.

He stuck out his hand "Hi, I didn't get to introduce myself in English but my name is Mike."

I hesitated before shaking his hand I did not want to be tempted to control this guy and I'm sure I'm going to be he seems like the clingy type. "Bella," I said giving his hand a firm shake, this seemed to surprise him I guess he was used to girls giving weak handshakes.

"What's your next class?" He asked as he leaned into my personal bubble and looked at my schedule. "Oh! I have AP Bio next too, I'll walk with you there." He seemed pleased as punch to be helping little ole me find my way around this enormous bustling school. I was even being sarcastic in my thoughts today, if I kept up this bad mood I was sure to do something I was going to regret in the morning.

"That would be super." I said. 'Super'? I never say super. I rolled my eyes without him seeing. Slow down there Swan you're going to over play your hand.

"Great, it's right this way," He said.

As we walked down the hall then out into the courtyard it became increasingly difficult to ignore the stares and whispers from the groups of students that seemed to move out of our way like magnets repelling each other. Mikey over there seemed to be oblivious to it all as he went on and on about what life was like in Forks and the friends that he sits with at lunch, or at least those were the parts that I caught. While he was going on about his happily monotonous life I was silently losing my mind thinking about what the kids around me could be saying. What if they recognized me? I didn't think that my story had gone national but what did I know? I stopped watching the news after the incident in the alley.

The final week that I spent in Arizona I decided to go to school, ya'know say good bye to the friends, finish up dealing with academic matters. The week was hell. Okay so maybe I'm being melodramatic it wasn't really hell, I knew hell, I knew hell from the minutes I spent thinking I was going to be raped and killed in some filthy alley way by some creepy bastard. I had gotten my little taste of hell and now I should have known better than to compare awkward social situations to painful near death experiences. The point is I hated that week, it was filled with people whispering whenever they saw me and the constant questions, my favorite being "Did you really kill that Nazi guy?" well yeah dude don't you watch the news? I stabbed him in the neck with his own knife. My least favorite being "How did it feel to kill him?" If I was to be completely honest with myself I would say that it felt great, amazing even to drive that blade into his neck. I felt nothing but shear relief the moment he pulled the blade out, fell to the ground and bled out before my eyes. I didn't hate the question because I couldn't honestly answer it without freaking out my fellow classmates but because it caused me to relive the moment when I killed him, I'm not particularly squeamish but every time I realize that I'm happy he's dead that creature in the dark place in my mind flexes her claws and smiles a toothy grin because she knows the truth; that I enjoyed the hell out of killing that sick son of a bitch. She's the same creature that I war with every time I have control over someone, she doesn't see them as people she sees them as something to take advantage of, something vulnerable and easily taken. She sees them as prey.

The psychologist that my mom made me go see expected me to have some form of post traumatic stress disorder, I didn't. Sure I had the nightmares every night for at least a week but I had expected that and when they finally stopped I started to heal both emotionally and physicaly. The deep gouges on the backs of my forearms from where I had been shoved up against the uneven brick wall that had metal hardware sticking out of it (I had to get a tetanus shot and stitches), were now just angry red shiny scares and I didn't really feel much of anything when I thought about what happened. I considered myself extremely lucky.

"Don't you agree Bella?" Mike said. He had effectively torn me out of my thoughts. Uh oh, what to say, what to say... If I say "yes" then that would mean that I would be agreeing with Mike. I'm pretty confident that I would probably never agree with this dude on anything great or small. But if I say "no" then he would make me explain and number one I don't feel like talking to him and number two I have no idea what it was that he asked. Compromise my character or look like an idiot and admit that I wasn't listening? Well I'm nothing if I don't uphold my honor.

"Sorry, I wasn't listening," Honesty is the best policy. "could you repeat that?"

He looked annoyed "I was saying that I liked the small town life style around here and wondered what you thought of it so far."

"I don't think I've been here long enough to make a judgment just yet." I was pretty sure I would be bored out of my mind by the end of the week.

"I think you'll really come to like it here," Not likely, cowboy.

We walked into the biology class and I handed my schedule to the teacher. He gave me the usual welcome and fortunately for me he skipped the class-wide introduction and told me to take a seat at one of the black-topped tables four rows back. Fine by me, it didn't look like I was going to have a table buddy since the bell was about to ring and no one was in the seat next to me.

I leaned back and watched as all the other students settled in, saw that most of them were sneaking glances my way. A few more students trickled into the classroom and at the last second one last guy made it in before the bell rang. I realized then that all the other seats were filled and that this guy would be sitting next to me. Let's just say I was definitely not disappointed with the turn of events. He was handsome to say the least, if his face had been even a little less masculine I would even have called him beautiful. He was tall and it seemed to me that he walked the way a big cat walks across the Savannah, all precariously contained power waiting for the slightest excuse to be let loose. Huh, he must play some kind of sport.

The teacher gave him a dirty look as he walked past. "Barely made it Edward, take a seat so I can start the lesson." Geez, I have a feeling I'm not going to like this teacher.

It looked like Edward was trying not to roll his eyes. He walked down the aisle and stopped abruptly, glaring at me. What the hell? Was I in his seat or something? I was told to sit here so I didn't think so, plus who gets that pissed off at someone they don't even know for such a minor thing? He was still just staring daggers at me, standing in the middle of the classroom, soon the other students would notice and then I expected that it would rapidly go downhill after that.

"That's called a new student Edward, she won't bite I promise. Now take a seat." What a condescending asshole. Even though this Edward guy was currently giving me the worst stink eye I'd ever experienced I couldn't help but be on his side by default.

Edward visibly gulped and walked over to the table his stride stiff and took a seat. He sat as far away from me as he could and sat at the very edge of his seet as if he was ready to bolt at any second. His whole posture was incredibly tense. What was wrong with him? Or me? Did someone write something offensive across my forehead when I wasn't paying attention? That seemed highly unlikely, none of the other students were reacting negatively towards me. Maybe I smelled bad? I leaned down and as discreetly as I could sniffed to see if I had somehow forgotten to put on deodorant. Nope, I smelled like 'spring rain'. I guess it wasn't me causing whatever problem this guy had.

As the class went on I became more and more uncomfortable sitting next to Edward. At times it seemed like he was about to pounce rather than bolt, as strange as that sounds. But as I realized the truth to that idea and disregarded it's absurdity the more on edge I became. Whenever I looked his was I saw that he was staring at me from the corners of his eyes. I was completely creeped out. My instincts told me that I was in some sort of danger, for a while it's all I could focused on, I completely forgot that I was in a room full of other people, it didn't matter, I knew beyond a doubt that the person sitting not four feet away from me was a threat. I thought of just getting up and leaving the room, not giving any explanation and just getting in my car and going home. 'No!' Barked a voice in my head 'do not give it a reason to start the hunt,' The hunt? I thought in a panic. Was I being stalked by a predator? 'Yes' said the voice. I recognized it as the creature that ruled the savage part of my brain. 'don't even think of flinching, in fact don't make any sudden movements, control your fear.' It's hard to control involuntary reactions, especially when you're told that you have to. It made me think of large predators, a wolf getting a thrill when it scents the deer's fear.

I took deep breaths, tried to think of anything but the fact that my life was in peril yet again. I didn't understand this, this situation was all wrong, it was the middle of the day there was no giant criminal trapping me only a teenage boy. I could deal with the obvious threats but this, this I just didn't understand. Maybe I was being completely ridiculous; it could be the stress of my first day that's making me delusional 'You know you're not having delusions," she said. Or did I say that? She was after all a part of me; my instincts seemed to have taken on a life of their own probably so that I couldn't ignore them. Or... I had gone absolutely batshit.

I peeked at Edward through my peripherals, he was glaring, his jaw clenched, nostrils flaring. I couldn't be scared, my fall back emotion became anger. I was pissed at this guy. Who the hell was he to make me fearful in broad daylight? In my silently enraged state I had turned my head completely to glare back at him and didn't realize that I was making a low hissing noise in the back of my throat like that of a cornered cat until I saw shock and confusion briefly cross his face before he whipped his head around to face forward. 'Yes' I heard. She laughed mirthlessly. 'Good going, he's confused as to what you are.' No kidding I surprised the hell out of myself with that move.

The bell rang bringing me back to earth with a crash. I didn't move except to glance at the now empty seat next to me. I relaxed inch by inch, I was so wound up I was about to snap. I needed to leave, I had to get away from all these people and be alone with my thoughts. I lingered in the class till the students for the next period started coming in. I figured that was enough time for Edward to be safely away in his next class, as far away from me as possible. I left the building walked straight across the courtyard and to the parking lot. I didn't drive home, I just drove. I left Forks and drove West, I didn't have anywhere particular in mind but at the speed I was going I was getting somewhere pretty quick.

I was sitting in a small cozy coffee shop drinking some kind of heavenly cinnamon flavored drink when Charlie called my cell phone. I looked at the clock on the phone, oh shit five o'clock. I answered reluctantly. "Hey Charlie, I -" It wasn't much of a surprise when he cut me off.

"Where the hell are you? I get home to you gone and a message from the school saying that you missed your last four classes!" I could hear him breathing heavily.

"Dad I'm sorry I just got really overwhelmed and I couldn't take it. I had to leave or I was going to cry or yell at some innocent by standard." I didn't tell him the exact reason for my fragile state of mind and I knew that he would assume that something had reminded me of the incident back in Arizona and put me in my current condition. I was not about to burst his bubble.

He sighed and seemed to be thinking over what I had said. "Ok, but you should have called me or something, I was worried. You need to come home now." That might be a problem, I was about three hours away, I had actually driven a lot farther almost to the Makah reservation I decided that was far enough and turned around but when I needed gas I just took the first exit I saw and decided that coffee sounded like a good idea.

"That might take just a little while, I'm not exactly in town..." I didn't say where I was because I wasn't exactly sure and telling him that would just alarm him.

"How far away are you?" Time I could do, I was super glad he didn't ask where I was. I cleared my throat "Like three hours, tops." I said dismissively trying to depreciate the amount of time with just the tone of my voice.

"Okay..." He was clearly trying to control whatever negative reaction he was having. "Get home as soon as you can. But!...Don't rush, plus it's five o'clock traffic right now, so watch out for all the maniacs." He was taking this surprisingly well, which concerned me for two reasons, either A: He was concerned for my fragile emotional state and thought I was on the verge of a meltdown or B: Didn't want me to be frazzled with stress on my way home and I was going to get _it_ when I got home. I hoped for the first one, I could play up the emotional distress if I needed to.

I got into my car and started for home, the windows open letting in the cool crisp air the speed and the wind was exhilarating and put a smile on my face. As I got onto the winding two lane highway dusk settled in.

**A/N so what did ya'll think? Review? Suggestions? **


	3. Head Trauma

_I don't own any of this, Meyers does._

I need new windshield wipers. The streaks of water on the glass in front of me were becoming increasingly hard to see around. Maybe because they were getting bigger? I should just buy them in bulk, with weather like this I'd probably go through them like packs of gum.

I was running late for school and not really in a hurry yet. Not sure why that was, maybe I knew on some level that I wasn't going to be late. Or it could be because I was spoiling for a fight with my English teacher...

The parking lot was clearing out as I pulled into a spot at the back. My rain boots sloshed mud from the ankle deep pot holes, I missed my flip flops.

Mike was waiting outside of English for me, even though the bell was going to ring any second. I pretended to be in a hurry and rushed past him with a quick "Hi." I sat down and zoned out as the teacher went on some rant on how no one was doing the required reading. We were supposed to read up to act four in Hamlet by now. I've already read it, it was on the summer reading list in Arizona.

"Bella? Are you paying attention?" said the teacher. I still didn't know what his name was…

"Of course I am, I just zoned out for a little bit." The class laughed.

"Alright, if you feel that you can just zone out in my class then you must have read?" by the look on his face he thought he had me. This should be entertaining.

"Yup I did." I said.

"Okay then, what possible psychological disorder could Polonius have?"

"He's neurotic, you can tell by the way he speaks."

"and Hamlet?"

"Depression, Post traumatic stress disorder, and he shows signs of an oedipal complex, ew by the way." I ticked them off on my fingers as I went through them. The Teach did not looked pleased but he did turn around and start writing on the white board. I earned my right to zone out and I would fight for it.

I was the first one out of that class when the bell rung. I did quick double take when I walked into Bio, Creepy Dude was in his seat. He hadn't been around for two weeks after our first encounter, if you could even call it that, we hadn't even spoke.

He looked up when I started down our row of tables, he looked tense, at least he didn't scowl this time. _Easy, play it cool, _said my _other_ inner voice_. _No really? Thanks Voice for that vital piece of advice. Stupid patronizing voice, what does she think I'm going to do, pick a fight? I sat down in my seat and saw that his chair was scooted as far away from mine as possible. I fought the urge to sniff myself.

"Hello," he cleared his throat, "I'm Edward, Edward Cullen." I had to stifle the snort of amusement that was threatening to burst out. Bond, James Bond.

"Isabella Swan, but call me Bella," I said.

"I want to apologize for the way I acted… last time," he said. That was nice of him and all but I didn't really want an apology, I wanted an explanation.

"Don't sweat it. Some days I'm on the verge of a murderous rampage too, I wouldn't let it get to you." Now that I say it, it seems kind of accurate.

He had a shocked look on his face for about a half second before his expression turned to one of forced amusement, a mask. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Yes. I was having an off day." He said. Whatever you want to call it buddy…

The teacher announced that we would be looking at slides of onion cells and identifying what stage in the cell cycle they were in. _Super_… I was sensing a theme here and at the rate this was going I wouldn't learn anything new this year.

"I'll go get the microscope," I said getting up.

"And I'll get the lab sheets." He said, teamwork already eh? Nice.

We set up the lab and Edward seemed to think it was his job to do the whole thing. The hell?

"Anaphase," he muttered writing it down on our paper.

"Pass it here," I said motioning with my hands.

"Oh sure," he said like 'okay little girl, you can play with the microscope.' What did he take me for, a moron?

I switched out the slides and with barely a glance identified the next one as "Metaphase," I said. He slid it over to his side and checked. "alright then," he said.

We kept up our little competition for about another ten minutes and finished before anyone else.

"So Bella," he said turning in his chair to face me. "I hear you're from Phoenix."

"Sure am, I moved here when my mom's boy friend got a baseball draft and we were going to move to Florida. I decided I needed to spend some time with my Dad," I said, mirroring him.

"Ah yes, police chief Swan. That must be fun," he said.

"It's not as bad as you might think. Oh, and by the way you are the first person not to point out the glaring difference in climate's between here and Phoenix and I thank you for that," I said.

He smiled "Well I figured you would have already realized it," he said.

"You got that right," I said.

We fell into silence; I found that the string hanging off my backpack was really fascinating, the way it was woven and the individual frayed fibers sticking out. Wonder how many individual fibers there are in one thread? In the whole backpack? Never thought threads could be so interesting.

"You know, your name just sounds so familiar to me but I can't place where I've heard it. Help me out here, where do I know your name from?" he said sounding just a tad anxious.

"I don't know," I said looking up then dropping my gaze quickly.

"Wait, you said you were form Phoenix right? A story came out of there about a month back, about a girl getting attacked but I believe she killed her attacker." I guess the story _had_ gone national. He acted like he didn't know the specifics of the story but I feel like it was an act, he knew for sure that I was that girl. What was his game?

"I remember that story, wasn't there something about a Nazi?" I asked. It was bad acting and we both knew it.

"Yes, that is what the report said." He was playing along.

"I believe it also said that she stabbed him in the neck with his own knife." I said, not getting the reaction I expected, instead of shocked and freaked out he looked sort of impressed.

"She sounds like a survivor." He said looking into my eyes.

"Yeah," I said turning towards him more and propping my head in one hand.

His eyes focused on my upper arm, in the position it was in you could clearly see the messy scars. I was about to put my arms to my sides but he reached out and ran a single fingertip over them. I tensed, his fingers were icy and they left a trail of heat in their wake. He looked up to me and our eyes locked.

"It's okay, don't think you have to talk to me about it. I'm sure it's difficult," he said.

"What? Nah, it's okay, I don't have any problem talking to you about it. Though it did get a bit old in Phoenix when I was at school. People can be so tactless." I said. The reassuring words had come out without me really even thinking about them but as I spoke them I realized how true they were. I felt like he would know what I was talking about; he wouldn't just have some sick fascination or want to spread the latest piece of gossip. This dude understood.

"What were you …uh, thinking at the time?" he asked. Wow, that was a new one.

"Mostly expletives directed toward his mother." I laughed and continued more seriously. "I remember thinking 'okay, find a weapon and kill this guy, you're not going to get out of this otherwise' then I don't really remember thinking much else, just that I was really happy he was dead." I finished nodding to myself.

"You kept a clear head, that's amazing." He said. I blushed a little at the strange compliment. If you told me four months ago someone would be complimenting my killing prowess… I would probably say that it's because I tripped while holding a knife and killed the bad guy.

"For the most part." I said.

"You don't feel… well guilty is the wrong word entirely, bad in any way that you killed him?" he asked, it sounded like he thought I should feel bad, I had completely messed up his view of how the teenage female emotional system worked. Good.

"Not even a little, in fact if you really wanna know, I smile on the inside every time I realize that I saved myself." I said leaning a little closer to him.

"You're capricious." He said.

"Nope, Pisces," I said laughing. He just smiled and rolled his eyes.

The class had a discussion about mitosis and meiosis while I tried and failed not to get caught peaking at Edward out of the corner of my eye.

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The rest of the week went as follows, go to school, go to work (when scheduled), go home and try not to think about the annoying mystery that was Edward. It was driving me insane, I found my thoughts drifting to why he was the way he was and why he did the strange things he did. The voice in my head, I started calling her Voice because she knew things I didn't and I couldn't accept that she was just a part of my conscious, I liked to think of her as a ghost that haunted my head and gave out sage advice on occasion. I felt somehow saner that way.

I dealt with my new "friends," they were okay I guess, if you could ignore the fact the guys wanted to screw me and the girls wanted to kill me. Except for Angela that is, she seemed like the only genuine person at the lunch table.

I walked out to my car trying not to slip and fall on my ass on the random patches of ice. I was parked in my usual space, far from most of the other cars; I in no way wanted some dumb teenage driver messing up my baby. Even if there was so much as a scratch on him (I felt more comfortable calling my car a 'he' while in the same sentence calling it my baby), I'd hunt down and strangle the responsible party.

I looked both ways before crossing the main lane that leads out of the school, to the left, all huddled around the red BMW were the Cullen's. Edward was there watching me cross the road. I rolled my eyes, that kid always looked so serious when he was around his siblings.

My car is in sight and I have yet to slip, it's a small miracle that I've made it this far I tried not to feel too proud of myself, you know the whole thing about pride before falls.

The screech of tires was all the warning I had. I looked up to see what form of crappy car is going to be my death sentence, it was a damn minivan sliding out of control on the ice, I would hope to be taken out by something cooler, I'd even settled for a compact car.

Being pushed down then under my car cut off my view and cracked my head against the cold pavement, my vision swam and bright colors flashed, I would normally think they were neat except for the fact that it meant I was probably concussed.

The screech of rending metal brought me back to earth. Above me Edward braced himself, one hand on the ground the other pressed into the side of the van, stopping it. _Sweet Jesus_.

"What the hell?" I said to no one in particular.

"Bella, are you okay? You hit your head really hard," he said gently feeling the back of it. There was a giant lump, though it would go down soon, I tended to heal fast.

"No shit! I hit it when you pushed me down and stopped the damn van with your bare hands! How in the world did you get over here anyhow, you were across the parking lot?" I said trying to sit up, he put a hand on my stomach and urged me to lie back down.

"I don't know what you're talking about Bella, I was right next to you the whole time. You must have really hit your head hard." What was this? He was trying to blame what I just saw him do on head trauma? I don't friggen think so, I know what I just saw.

I didn't have any more time to discuss it though, I could hear the alarmed voices of students and faculty coming closer and sirens in the distance, damn that was fast.

They made me go to the hospital despite my threats of bodily harm and reassurances that I was completely unharmed; I was strapped to a gurney and whisked away. Edward sat in the corner of the ambulance shifting his eyes every time they caught my _the-next-time-we're-alone-I'm-gonna'-stab-you_ glare.

They took x-rays that came up clear, at least I assume so since they put me in a regular non intensive care bed that had curtains around it, unfortunately pulling the curtain closed and giving him a pointed look didn't stop Tyler Crowley from voicing for the thousandth time how very sorry he was. If I found a scalpel and stabbed him with it I figure I could easily blame it on the trauma of the accident. Injuries seem to bring out my inner stabber. I could just influence him into shutting the hell up but if someone saw me do it they wouldn't believe it was possible and know something was up.

Plus if I was going to be influencing or stabbing anyone it would be the lying little ass-munch Edward that saved my life then ditched me as soon as he could. Jerk.

Light footsteps precede the curtain being pulled back to reveal a blonde hunk, the white lab coat and stethoscope I guess made him a doctor. My doctor. Score.

"I'm Doctor Carlisle Cullen," he said putting his hand out for me to shake, his grip was firm and cold.

"Nice to meet you, Bella Swan, though I suppose you know that," I said.

He laughed a little "Yes I do, Edward came and found me, insisted I come see you, said that you had a large goose egg on the back of your head."

"Yeah, my head hit the black top pretty hard." I agreed.

His cold hand felt the back of my head "Well if you did have one I can't seem to find it now, it's gone down."

Oh shit…play dumb, yeah that's safest. "Well that's a good thing right? I mean head bumps are usually…" Usually what? Bad? No kidding, but if I say that it would look like I was laying it on too thick. I should have just kept my mouth shut. Dear self, you can appear just as dumb if you don't say anything at all and you don't run the risk of giving yourself away. I shrugged.

Carlisle raised an eyebrow, he wasn't buying it. It didn't look as if he was going to push the issue though although I didn't think for a second that this was the last I'd hear of it.

"So that means I can get out of here right?" I said hoping to change the subject.

He smiled "Oh sure, you're free to go I'll have Charlie do the paper work as soon as he's done with Crowley over there. Go home and get some rest, take some ibuprofen."

"Sure thing." I said hopping up off the bed only to sway forward slightly, head rush, totally unrelated to the head injury. Carlisle made to steady me but I shook my head "Just head rush" I said.

Carlisle looked up and Edward walked around the corner as if on cue. Creepy…

"Do me a favor and drive Bella home would you?" Carlisle said.

We both took a quick breath to protest and Carlisle shot us down with a threatening paternal look.

"You are not allowed to drive for the rest of the day." I was not about to argue with that look.

"Aye aye Doc," I said with a half hearted salute.

Carlisle looked to both of us smiling. I rolled my eyes, (I know what he's up to), and headed for the exit.

"We're going to talk about what happened." I said getting into the passenger seat of the Volvo, I could picture my poor car all alone in the freezing parking lot, I felt like I was cheating on him with some hot Scandinavian playboy.

He rolled his eyes, "Nothing happened."

"Oh! You're right, stopping out of control vehicles with one's bare hands is a common occurrence, something that happens every day." I said.

"Exactly," he said.

"Ha! So you admit it?" I said.

"Admit what?" he said.

I turned towards him so the side of his face could get the full wrath of my pissed off gaze.

"Look, I'd probably be a large stain on the pavement if you hadn't done what you did -"

"I wish you'd just forget about this." He didn't say it loudly but with such intensity that stopped midsentence.

"I was trying to thank you for that thing you didn't do."

He met my eyes, "You're welcome," he said.

I think that means I win…

A/N So after this things are seriously going to pick up, I just needed to get these parts out of the way. What did you think? Any ideas? Suggestions, totally open to anything you think will help.


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